Aryl-appended tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine ligands are a relatively new class of chelate ligands in coordination and synthetic bioinorganic chemistry. As outlined herein, to date, coordination complexes of such ligands have been prepared and characterized for first row metal ions from groups 7-12. These studies revealed key coordination properties for this family of ligands. Aryl-appended tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine ligands have been recently employed in synthetic, biologically relevant metal complexes that exhibit: 1) arene hydroxylation reactivity relevant to non-heme iron-containing containing enzymes that hydroxylate aromatic amino acids; and 2) structural and reactivity properties relevant to Ni(II)-containing acireductone dioxygenase, urease, and glyoxalase I enzymes.